Why You Must Show Time Passing in Your Novel

This is often overlooked, but it’s essential for great stories.

How do you make time pass?

Well, when you’re living your regular life in the real world, you don’t have to do anything.

Time is constantly passing, no matter what you do. And when a timer goes off, or you look outside and see the sun’s gone down, or you feel your stomach growl with hunger, you notice time has passed.

You hardly have to think about it. It’s just happening, all around you, all the time.

In your novel, though—well, there, you are responsible for charting the passage of time. You are the filter who determines how time passes.

More than that, you are responsible for telling your readers how much time is going by.

It’s an essential part of storytelling, and yet it’s often overlooked. So in this episode, we’re talking about time.

You’ll learn:

• Why writers often forget to mention time passing
• 3 ways you can use time passing to enhance your story
• What happens when you don’t show how time is passing in your story
• 2 kinds of tension you can create using time
• And more!

I’ve read so many manuscripts where I lose track of time and have to ask the writer, “Wait, when does this happen?” Check out this episode and save yourself from this common oversight.

Transcript

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Your story has a setting in space and time. I find that writers usually know that they need to ground their readers in the physical setting of their story. I don't generally encounter characters who are doing things in an undefined void. It's usually pretty clear where things are happening. But writers often forget the time part of the setting. It's just as important to tell us when something is happening, as it is to tell us where it happens Welcome to your next draft. Right now, as I record this episode, it is may of 2024, which is pretty wild. I have no idea where the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday that I was putting together all my plans and dreams and goals for 20, 24. And somehow here we are nearly halfway through the year. It's been an exciting year so far, I've gotten to take several writers in their manuscripts through my story refinery process, where we set them up with a really clear outline for their next draft. I've brought on a few new coaching clients and I'm getting to dig into their stories every week, which is always so, so fun. It's one of my favorite things to do every week. And we're getting closer and closer to my big, exciting summer project. My new seen mastery workshop, which is starting in late June. And it is a warm spring day here in the Southeast United States. So when I went on my walk to write this episode, I got to enjoy the gorgeous spring weather and the smell of all the flowers, blooming and the plants growing. And hear all the birds chirping. And then I got rained on because I didn't tie my day quite right. But Hey, it's spring. That's what happens. It was not a very heavy rain. It was actually kind of pleasant. I'm just soaking up all of this gorgeous spring weather before it gets really hot because I live in Georgia and once summer hits, it gets really, really hot. I say all this because somehow the year feels like it is just flying by. And I was looking at my podcast, editorial calendar, and I realized that for the last three months, most of my episodes have had something to do with the mindset that it takes to edit novels. I stand by every one of those episodes because your mindset is just so important. Those episodes are all drawn from real conversations that I'm having with the writers that I coach one-on-one every single week. These mindset challenges come up with the writers that I'm working with. And then I turn around and share the big takeaways with you here on the podcast. For instance. In April, I shared a couple episodes about the learning stage and the execution stage of skill development. And in April, I had one-on-one conversations with several writers about their current projects, their goals for their manuscripts, and whether they should shift into a learning stage or an execution stage right now, in order to meet those goals. And I have clients who are going in both directions. Some are moving into more of a learning space and some are moving into more of an execution space. So, what you hear on this podcast really is coming directly from the coaching and editing that I am doing every day with my clients. But here's the thing. I know that you really love my super technical, how to episodes, where I give you specific strategies for how to edit your manuscript, what to look for, how to spot the problems and opportunities for development and how to figure out what to change and how to change it. And since I have spent so long talking about mindset in the last few months, We haven't had many how to episodes lately. It's been a bit of a, how to desert. But I'm not going to leave you in the desert. So this week we are heading back into that. Good. How to content? And I have a topic that I'm really excited to share with you, because again, this is something that's coming up over and over again. And the work that I'm doing with writers one-on-one. Let's talk about time. Specifically, let's talk about how to convey the passage of time in your novel. I began training as an editor in 2017. Back at the first story grid, editor training with editor, Shawn Coyne. And I remember Sean mentioning time passing. In fact, I think he spent like an hour, one day showing us how Jane Austin Marks the passing of time and pride and prejudice. And I remember thinking, okay, that's nice, but I want to get back to the important stuff, to all the good story structure, concepts that are what editors really need to know. This feels like a no brainer. Of course, we know that time is passing in this story. Well, seven years and many, many manuscripts later, I can tell you that it is not nearly as much of a no-brainer as I initially thought it's actually something that is so often overlooked in the manuscripts that I edit. And as an editor, it is something that I definitely need to know. And I bring it up all the time with writers. So let's talk about it over the next three episodes. I'm going to show you how to make your readers feel the passage of time in your stories, just like your characters. Do. in this episode, we'll talk about why this matters so much. Then in the next two episodes, I'll give you some specific techniques to convey the passage of time on the page. That's three meaty. How two episodes in a row. So get excited. All right. Why are we talking about the passage of time? Why does this even need mentioning? Why is it so easily overlooked? Well, I think this is a case of author brain. That is when you, the writer know your story so well that you think that what you've written on the page is clear to your readers. But in fact, there's information in your brain that you haven't put on the page. So there's something that, you know, that is not clear to your readers. Every time you read your manuscript, your brain fills in the missing information automatically. So you don't even know that it's not there on the page, but when someone else picks up the story, they feel the gap. This is going to happen with a lot of story details, but the place where I see it most often is definitely time passing. You know how much time passes in between the events of your story? But a lot of times writers forget to put this critical information and yes, it is critical information on the page. The thing is for your characters. The story is taking place over days, weeks, months, or even years, but for your readers, it's probably happening a lot faster. They might spend just a few hours reading your book. If you have a page Turner, that's hard to put down. They might finish it in a single day. And that means that for your readers, the story will feel like it's taking place over the span of just a few hours. They'll feel like it rushes through to the end. Like me being surprised that we're in may, already. Unless you make it really clear that it's taking much longer. The good news is that this is super easy to fix and it doesn't take a lot of words to fix it. You won't be in danger of ballooning your word count from adding markers of time. And it will have a big impact on your readers experience of your story. So why do we need markers of time? More than that. What do we want to do with them? How can markers of time actually enhance your story? I'm sure there are many things that markers of time can do, but there are three main ones that I want to draw your attention to. The first goal of time markers is to establish the setting of your story. Your story has a setting in space and time. I find that writers usually know that they need to ground their readers in the physical setting of their story. I don't generally encounter characters who are doing things in an undefined void. It's usually pretty clear where things are happening. But writers often forget the time part of the setting. It's just as important to tell us when something is happening, as it is to tell us where it happens and just like establishing the setting and space. You'll want to establish the setting in time very quickly. When we enter a new scene, we want to be grounded in the settings so that we can imagine the scene accurately. It's jarring to get halfway through a scene, thinking that we're at one point in time. And then discover halfway through that it's actually six hours or six months or six years later than we thought. There's only one time that I can think of when you might want to withhold information about the time setting of the story. And that's when being unsure when it is, is plot relevant. If your character wakes up from a coma and they don't know what year it is, you might choose not to tell the reader what year it is. If your character is trapped in a room with no windows and they lose track of how many days they've been in there, you might not tell the reader the date. But even here, you can still give the reader clues about the passing of time that your character does have access to the person who just woke up from a coma. Doesn't know what year it is, but they can see the sunset and know how many days have passed The person who's trapped in a windowless room might not know what day it is, but they do know when they get hungry and when they get tired. There's almost always something you can share with the reader to help ground us in the story. The second goal of time markers is to make your readers feel time passing the same way that your characters do. Your readers want to read stories that make them feel. They want to connect with characters that they care about and feel what those characters feel. And that includes feeling the passage of time, the way that your characters are feeling it. In my regular life, I feel the passage of time. I feel it when I walk outside in may and the day is sunny and warm, not icy and cold. I feel it when I get hungry and realize that I haven't eaten food since lunch, I feel it when I look up and realize that it's dark outside. And that probably means that I should do something about dinner. I feel it when I visit my best friend's toddler and she's walking now, when she was only crawling on my last visit. These are all ways in which I feel the passage of time. It's not just information that I'm aware of. It's something that I experience. Your characters also experienced the passage of time and you want your readers to experience it the way that your characters do to feel time passing as the story progresses. And the third goal of time markers, really? This is the culmination of everything that we've talked about so far. It's to create tension. Time markers give you an opportunity to create tension, anticipation, curiosity, conflict, uncertainty in your story and who doesn't want that. There are a couple of different ways that you can create tension with time. Actually, there are probably many different ways, but there are two that I'm going to highlight. First there's backwards looking tension. You can think of this as, how long has it been since something happened? Maybe something major happened in the past and your character is reacting to it. They might react to it by trying to get back to whatever life was like before that thing happened. As time passes, it carries them farther and farther away from that before time, time passing is painful and it makes things harder because your character doesn't want to let go of that before. Or they might react to that major thing by trying to get away from it. Forget about it, leaving it behind them in the dust. So time passing is a relief, making things better. And the opposite of this is forward looking tension. You can think of this as how long is it until something happens? Maybe something major is coming up. Your character knows that it's coming and your reader knows too. And now everyone's looking at this point in the future, wondering what's coming next. What will happen when we get to that major thing? I just read funny story, the newest novel from Emily Henry and she uses both backwards, looking tension and forwards looking tension to shape her story. I won't spoil the book for you since it just came out. But I will tell you how Emily Henry creates this tension. Funny story is a romance novel. And in April, a few weeks before the book begins, Daphne, the protagonist gets dumped by her fiance. That's the major thing that happened in the past and Daphne is trying to get away from it. In fact, she's trying to get away from it so thoroughly that she's planning to move to another state, But she can't leave until a specific event happens, which I won't spoil for you again. I said no spoilers. It's not a huge one, but I'll still keep that to myself. She can't leave until a particular date when a particular thing is going to happen. So she's counting down the days until this thing happens and she gets freedom. I mean that literally the title of the first chapter is Wednesday, May 1st 108 days until I can leave. That tells us both how long it's been since Daphne got dumped and how long has left before she can leave town. And the countdown continues in the chapter titles all the way until the big event at the end. So there's a major event in Daphne's future and we, the readers know it And Daphne is keeping us on track with time passing until we get there with a literal countdown. And just like that in the first few pages, Emily Henry creates both forwards and backwards looking tension that carries us all the way through the novel. So there you have it three important things that you can accomplish in your stories simply by making sure that you've included enough markers of time for your readers to follow along. Here they are again. First you'll establish the setting. So your readers are grounded in the story and they know where it takes place in both space and time. Second you'll make your readers feel time passing the way that your characters do. And third. You'll create tension. Backwards looking tension, forwards looking tension or both. How do you do this? How do you give your readers just the right clues to indicate the passage of time? That's the topic of the next episode. For now I encourage you to do two things. First pick up a book that you enjoy and read a few chapters, Look for every clue you can find that indicates when the story is taking place and how time is passing through the story. What are the obvious ways that the author tells you in each new scene when it is. And what are the subtle hints that indicate how time is passing scene by scene, Even if the author doesn't draw obvious attention to it. And second pick up your own manuscript and read a few chapters. Where have you indicated when the story takes place and how time is passing through your story? What clues have you given the reader so that they can follow along with time passing? I'll be back in a couple of weeks in late may. With another episode of your next draft. In it, I will share some specific ways that you can get the passage time on the page in your story. That's some forward-looking tension for you. You'll have to wait a couple of weeks to find out how to do this. In the meantime, see what you can discover within the stories that you love. And what's, you're already doing in your own writing. Happy editing.